Welcome To The District Six Website
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District
Six City Council Member Jerry Duncan |
Thank you for visiting the District Six website. As your representative for District Six in the City of Fresno, it is an honor to serve you. In order to provide you the best information possible, I have chosen not to use the City of Fresno's server but have chosen to pay for and design my own website for the District. The entire cost of this is paid for by me and is not supported in any way by your tax dollars. I decided to do this because it is so important that you get the best. most up to date information regarding City issues and issues affecting you, the residents of the District and I wanted the freedom to communicate with you in an honest and open manner.
This website is organized in a simple way and hopefully information can be accessed easily. If you have any suggestions on how it can be improved, please let me know.
You can also e-mail me by clicking here. I will answer your e-mail.
July 22, 2008
Newest Attempt For The Police Auditor Is Anything But "Independent"
After 6 years of being rejected by the City Council, Mayor Autry has again proposed that the City of Fresno have an Independent Police Auditor. There is a new twist to this effort however in that the Mayor will ask the Fresno City Council to place a Charter Amendment on the November ballot and let voters decide.
Our City Charter is like the Constitution and defines how our City operates. It is rarely changed, as it should be. Currently there are only four positions defined in the City Charter; the City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk and Controller. Adding a new position to the Charter in this manner is unprecedented. Adding this position at a department head level does not rise to the level of being a Charter change. It is serious overkill.
Another new twist is that this will be the 4th generation of how this position would work. Over the years, the City Council has had three specific variations of this position proposed by the Mayor and now this is the fourth.
The first variation was to be modeled after San Jose’s. The second one was modeled after Sacramento’s. The third version was a hybrid of both. The last two years no model was described in the budget request, we were just asked to fund and approve the position.
The new variation being proposed for our City Charter would have the “Independent” Police Auditor position selected by the City Manager, approved by the City Council, would report to the City Manager and according to the Mayor, would only be able to be fired by the City Council. What in the world is independent about that? Knowing pretty well how the City works, this position would become the most political and non-independent position in the City, period. Because it would be a Charter position, nothing could be changed without another vote of the people. This is a recipe for disaster.
We’ve been told that because of a survey, the public strongly supports his position. It is interesting that the actual question asked has nothing to do with any of the proposed duties of this position. I have many years of experience in market research and questionnaire development and the conclusions being drawn off this data by the Mayor are a very flawed.
I respect the Mayor and his belief in this position. I just happen to completely disagree with him on the need. After 6 years this issue should be over for now and left to future Mayor’s and City Council’s to discuss.
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